Sunday, February 9, 2014

Have you noticed that you can return to some children’s
books that you read first as a child when you are adult and find in them riches
you had never dreamt of.

I re-read Peter Pan recently and was amazed at how dark it
was, how rich it was. When I re-read the
Wind in the Willows I was amazed to find how moving the encounter with the god
of the animals’ world was in the wild wood – very moving to read at Christmas
time. I love the playfulness of Alice in Wonderland that
I never fully appreciated as a child. I
was enthralled by Emil and the Detectives, read to us with enthusiasm by a
teacher at school and by parents at home.
It was great returning to that after visiting Berlin and to discover the riches in that
novel too.

Then there are adult books that can be adapted for
children. Many who are around about my
age had a unique treat as children. I
would have been 6 or 7 when we had our first TV set. I remember on Saturday evenings the start of
Dr Who and before that the equally scary serial stories of Garry Haliday and
the Voice. And on Sunday evenings in the
same ‘children’s hour’ time slot ‘the classic serial’. Initially done live, and then in low budget
studio productions the BBC serialised all the great classic novels. To this day I find it hard to remember
whether I have read a particular novel by Dickens or whether I have seen it on
TV. Now those classic serialisations are
done in massively expensive lavish productions once or twice a year. Through the late 50’s and 60’s they were done
practically every week. The routine in
our house was to watch the 5-30 episode and then go to church. It meant I grew up with children’s
adaptations of the great classics.

When I have returned to them later on I have been taken
aback to discover the dark side, the disturbing side and the extent to which
these novels I was introduced to as if they were children’s stories are
actually adult stories that are very powerful.

It is very easy to imagine that the great Bible stories fall
into the first of those categories – we are introduced to them as children, we
tell them to children as children’s stories and they are wonderful. We imagine they were told for children.

Actually they were told for adults and we have down through
the years adapted them for children and made them into children’s stories. That’s
a wonderful thing to do – just as it was wonderful for my generation to
be introduced to the great classics of English literature in that way.

We can choose whether or not we return to the stories we
were introduced to as a child. We would
do well to choose to return to the Bible stories we were introduced to as
children and read them through the eyes of an adult.

That’s exactly what I want to do with the story of the
feeding of the 5000, brilliantly re-told by Bob Hartman in his story tellers
Bible, brought to life by countless Open the Book groups in schools up and down
the country, not least in Oakwood school by our Open the Book group.

It’s the one story from the ministry of Jesus that occurs in
all four Gospels. There are only half a
dozen or so other incidents in the life and ministry of Jesus recorded in John
‘s Gospel and none of them occur in all three of the other gospels.

Immediately, it makes you think there’s something special
about the feeding of the 5000. For John
it’s a foretaste of the bread we break in communion, for what we celebrate in
communion For Luke it is the link
between the commissioning of the 12 and Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus as
Messiah. For Mark it is part of that
journeying from the Jewish side of the sea of Galilee to the Gentiles side.

In Matthew’s gospel there is a darkness to the story that’s
easy to miss.

The centre point of Matthew’s Gospel is in chapter 13 when
Jesus teaches at length about the very kingdom of God John the Baptist had come to
proclaim, that Jesus had proclaimed – that entirely new way of looking at the
world. Matthew 13 is a chapter of
parables – the wonderful parables of the kingdom, how from tiny seeds, the
littlest of yeast, the great kingdom of heaven comes.

In focusing on this way on what shape God’s rule takes when
it comes on earth, Jesus sees himself very much as a prophet.

Once he has finished saying all those parables he moves on
and comes to Nazareth
where in his own home town he is rejected.
Jesus saw himself as a Prophet, in the line of those great prophets of
the Old Testament from Elijah and Elisha right the way through to John the
Baptist. “Prophets are not without
honour,” he said, “except in their own country and in their own house.” It is because of the unbelief of the people
that in Nazareth he did not do many of those deeds of power that were
associated with that great line of Prophets.

Then as Matthew 14 opens we return once again to the story
of John the Baptist. I don’t think I had
realised how prominent a part John the Baptist plays in Matthew’s gospel – it
is as if Jesus’ ministry is played with the figure of John the Baptist in the
shadows.

At that time Herod the
ruler heard reports about Jesus; 2and he said to his servants, ‘This is John
the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers
are at work in him.’

This is the Herod who was the son of Herod the Great, who
was later to play a key role in the trial and execution of Jesus. At the death of Herod the Great he had been
made ruler over the territory to the West of the Sea of
Galilee – one quarter of the old kingdom. As part of that Herodian dynasty he had
bought into the whole Roman way of doing kingdom – it was a brutal, harsh,
lavish, extravagent way of life that he had sought to impose on Galilee by
building two great Roman cities one the re-building of the sity of Sepphoris
less than five miles from Nazareth, and the other a brand new Roman city
complete with great shopping arcade, theatre and a very lavish life-style on
the shores of the Sea of Galilee – a city he called Tiberias after the name of
the emperor who reigned during the life and ministry of Jesus.

It is a moment of raw emotion for Herod. He had been incensed at the way John the
Baptist had attacked his Herodian regime, not least his own personal marital
arrangements, and he had had John imprisoned.

For Herod had arrested
John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother
Philip’s wife, 4because John had been telling him, ‘It is not lawful for you to
have her.’ 5Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd,
because they regarded him as a prophet.

This verse is a moment of sheer terror for Herod – he
recognises in Jesus a John the Baptist come to life. He had imagined he had silenced the prophetic
voice of John only to find it had come so much more alive in Jesus. This whole new way of thinking, this whole
new way of looking at the world, this kingdom of heaven Jesus was preaching,
turned upside down the worldly kingdom
of Roman values that
Herod and the Herodians were crafting.

The terror was all the stronger because Herod felt he had
had been trapped into having John the Baptist executed.

I used to revel in telling this story to children … I have
found it very much more difficult since realising that this kind of execution
still goes on.

In the story that Matthew records in detail here we have a
glimpse of the Roman way of life with its banqueting and its excess. Also a glimpse of the Roman callous disregard
of human life – one of the few civilisations to have sports that involve the
killing of people.

6But when Herod’s
birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she
pleased Herod 7so much that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might
ask. 8Prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me the head of John the Baptist
here on a platter.’ 9The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and
for the guests, he commanded it to be given; 10he sent and had John beheaded in
the prison. 11The head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who
brought it to her mother.

We sanitise this story when we tell it to children. It is horrific.

The disciples who in chapter 11 had come from the imprisoned
John asking whether Jesus was the one
John had been looking for now have a grim task to undertake.

12His disciples came
and took the body and buried it;

Who could they turn to?
They knew exactly who they could turn to.

12His disciples came
and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus.

So, what does Jesus do.

And it is at this point that we arrive at the story of the
Feeding of the Five Thousand. And we
find Jesus in the depths of a very real grief that overwhelms.

Now when Jesus heard
this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.

In the solitude he discovers the solace of prayer and of
peace.

But Jesus is not able to remain alone or in peace.

But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from
the towns.

14When he went ashore,
he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
15When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted
place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into
the villages and buy food for themselves.’

What Jesus models for this crowd is the exact opposite of
the banquet.

It’s a massive contrast.
Whereas the Roman feasting of a birthday celebration results in
death. The feasting from five loaves and
two fish results in life.

And all ate and were satisfied.

It is a wonderful conclusion.

It offers us an alternative lifestyle – this is the
lifestyle of the kingdom.

Note the numbers …

And those who ate were
about five thousand men, besides women and children

Why is the counting of the men significant?

Think what’s happened.
The prophetic voice of John has been silenced.

Is it a nice group of people out for a picnic as we tell the
story to the children. Or is it possibly
an angry crowd, shocked at what has become of the prophetic voice of John.

Turn to John’s gospel and he leaves you in no doubt …

This is a crowd of men who have come together to hail Jesus
as their King and take the Herodian dynasty by force of arms …

It is at this moment in John’s telling of the story (John
6:15) that Jesus realises what this crowd of men want to do …

When Jesus realised
that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he
withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

The kingdom of heaven Jesus has come to proclaim is not
built on the lavish excesses of the Roman lifestyle – it is not to be achieved
by force of arms – it hungers and thirsts after righteousness, involves love
for God, love for neighbour and love for enemy too, and it celebrates the
peacemaker. It may have tiny beginnings
in the mustard seed, the yeast, or the five loaves and two fish – but it is the
way to follow.

So what does Jesus do?
Back to Matthew 14:22

Immediately he made
the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he
dismissed the crowds. 23And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the
mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,

There is personal tragedy going on in this story that means
Jesus has to seek the solitude of prayer and the solace it gives.

There is also the tragedy of political turmoil as people
struggle to make sense of a wild world that seems to be engulfed by political
storms.

There is a remarkable, a disturbing, significance in what
then happens.

A real storm had swept down the rift valley of the Jordan
and had whipped up the usually tranquil sea of Galilee into a frenzy …

but by this time the
boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against
them.

But Jesus is there with them in the midst of the storm – the
real storm they experience on the sea of Galilee, he is in the midst of
whatever storm threatens to engulf them in personal tragedy, in political
tragedy too –

They cannot believe their eyes as they see his presence
approaching them … they were terrified!
It’s a ghost! And they cried out
in fear.

Then comes that wonderful moment …

Immediately … there and then … at precisely the moment at
which they are filled with terror and sense they will be totally overwhelmed
they hear the voice of Jesus …

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

This whole chapter took on new meaning for me when it was
read as a lectionary reading for the day when we touched the conflicts in
Palestine and Israel at their most raw – when we had encountered the tensions
between Jewish settlers and Palestinians and the work of Christian Peacemakers
in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Those are the words to take with whatever the uncertain
times we feel we face, be it in times of personal tragedy, or when we despair
at the state of the world. It is the
presence of Jesus with us in the storm and his word for our heart that speaks
into our fears …

Sunday, February 2, 2014

There are so many different life-style options on
offer! Pick up any paper at the weekend
and there will be no end of pundits advocating all sorts of views and touting
for our support.

How can you be sure?

It feels as if there are so many things to choose from … and
choice is of the essence. But how do
you choose?

Maybe, anything goes: it doesn’t really matter what you
believe, so long as you believe in something.

I googled the meaning of life and came across an artist with
a piece called ‘the meaning of life’ The
very act of doing that is characteristic of our age!

I came to a picture – thought provoking – title – meaning of
life by Jonathan Bentall.

Looked up the blog – born 1973 studied fine art, exhibits a
lot, got his own blog – works with children.
Interesting person.

Invites us simply to respond – from his blog – right at the
end …

I am a painter exploring light, colour and form using mixed
media; mainly oil and acrylic paint. My works are often abstract statements leaning
toward the lyrical, poetic or spiritual in terms of inspiration and painterly
tradition. I’m interested in the way ideas transcend the medium and how these
are mediated through human dialogue.

During the painting process I’m looking for an inner weight
to begin to establish its presence; a weight which does not completely abandon
reference to our sensual experience of space/time, yet also points elsewhere.
Direction and resolution are found in an idea such as a personal or collective
history, memory or narrative which launches the process or marks its completion
i.e. I either begin with a concept or discover one which suggests itself to me.

At the same time I look for tension in the suggestiveness of
what is seen by the viewer (as if the work is still evolving.) This tension
between what is resolved and yet still being resolved, is the source of
engagement that I try to achieve. Sometimes this emerges as a shifting middle
ground between figuration and abstraction as if the images appear and then dissolve
at the frontier between the two. For this reason my painting must become something to the viewer over time, as they
engage in the process of constructing meaning.

Googled again …

What is the meaning of life?
Whatever you want it to be.

How can you be sure?

People come and people go … and they have an offer the thing
that will make everything better.

How can you be sure?

Sometimes it can feel as if we are living in a particularly
bewildering age – with instant communication, so many TV channels, the
internet, globalisations – the old certainties are gone … and we live with so
many things that make us feel uncertain.

How can you be sure of who you are, what you believe, what
life is for?

Actually, the question is nothing new.

2000 years ago it was a time of great uncertainty.

The world of the Roman
Empire had taken an iron grip on Judea,
Samaria, Galilee
– anyone living there was immersed in a world of massive choice – the Roman
world with its pantheon of gods, with its cult of the Roman emperor.

It’s easy to imagine that Jewish people simply stood out
against that world … but actually Jewish people were caught in a quandary – how
do you live in that kind of world?

Some felt one thing, some felt another – some went along
with it, accommodated it, some wanted to maintain a purity of race and ritual,
some wanted to withdraw into a kind of monastic way of life, some wanted to
take up arms against the powers that be.

Just occasionally people emerged who seemed to get it. They offered a way of living in the world
that was true to the faith of their Jewish roots and yet also was real in this
world.

John the Baptist had been just such a person.

The thing to make sense of everything else as far as he was
concerned involved having a whole new way of looking at the world that centred
on recognising God’s rule in the world, God’s kingdom.

His message was simple.

Repent, have a whole new way of thinking, for the kingdom of
heaven, God’s rule, has come near.

Jesus lined himself up with John the Baptist – went down
into the Jordan and came back up into the wilderness – and once John was in
prison took on the mantle of John – his message was just the same …

Repent, have a whole new way of thinking, for the kingdom of
heaven, God’s rule, has come near.

Read on from Matthew 4 and you see how Jesus shared this
with those fishermen disciples, and then with Matthew, one of those publicani
who were caught in the extortionate system of taxation the Romans had imposed,
and then the twelve are listed.

Jesus calls the first Disciples

Jesus ministers to crowds

Sermon on the Mount

Love
God Love your neighbour Love your enemy Pray Act

Jesus cleanses a leper, heals a centurion’s servant, many at Peter’s house, stills the storm,
stills one deranged, one paralysed, girl who has died, woman in crowd, two
blind men, one who cannot speak

Calls Matthew and the 12 and sends them out

It was as if these were the core of the kingdom.

Jesus sketched out what it took to live in that kingdom – in
the Sermon on the Mount – love for God, love for neighbour, love for enemy
too. A life of prayer rooted in that
most wonderful of prayers …

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

Wherever he went that was the teaching that Jesus shared.

Wherever he went, he brought healing into troubled people’s
lives.

It was not something he alone did. He shared the task with those disciples he
had called – and in Matthew 10 he sketches out what they should be engaged in
as they went out in twos to proclaim the kingdom.

It wasn’t just that Jesus took up the mantle from John …
more than that, John sensed he was the one who was to come – who would usher in
the kingdom – who would be king in the kingdom of heaven.

But how can you be sure?

The longer John was in prison, the longer he was tormented
by the question.

How can you be sure?

Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve
disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their
cities.

A new way of thinking – the kingdom of heaven has come
near. God’s rule breaking into our
world.

This was a special message.

But how can you be sure.

2 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he
sent word by his disciples 3and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come,
or are we to wait for another?’

This is the question that troubled so many people. It was a question that troubled John. It’s the very question that can trouble us.

How can you be sure that this is the One.

That it is in Jesus and this message that we can find
something that will give meaning and shape to our lives?

The response Jesus gives is a response we can take to heart
… and it is a response that speaks as much to us today as ever it did to John.

4Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and
see: 5the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to
them. 6And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’

There are two things that it all hinges on

What you hear

And what you see

Weigh up the teaching of Jesus – the sermon on the mount –
does it make sense to John – and it did!

Weigh up what you see - 5the blind receive their sight, the
lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the
poor have good news brought to them.

And that’s exactly what was going on.

This is the One.

What do we hear?

The teaching and message of Jesus –

May we hear once more your Word for us,

A word of comfort,

a word of peace

A word of strengthening,

a word of challenge

What do we see?

May we see once more your love for us

In the love you had for others long ago

In the love you’ve had for others ever since

In the love you have for others in this place

In the love you have for others at this time

People being helped – sharing that healing, wholeness – the
testimony of Alice who has just died at 101 – a quiet faith, full of questions,
yet doing so much for other people, and sensing something very real of God.

How can we be sure?

The teaching remains all it has ever been.

The difference that God’s love makes in people’s lives.

Then there is also a task – I love the words of Matthew 11:4

Go and tell … what you hear and see

That’s our task – to go and tell.

The way that Jesus offers makes sense of life and the world
and is something for us to share.

Go and tell.

What do we tell?

What we hear – of Chrsit in that teaching

What we see – the difference it makes in our lives in other
people’s lives.

Lord Jesus Christ, send us from this place,

To go and tell what we hear and see

And one last thing remains.

Jesus goes on in chapter 11 to sing the praises of John the
Baptist – the one Jesus had taken the mantle from –

Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has
arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he.

There’s a real sense we are to take on the mantle John
passed to Jesus and Jesus has passed on to us.

The consequences of not doing so are grim – and are filled with destruction.

At the end of this chapter you come to a wonderful prayer
Jesus prays to his father and then an invitation.

I wonder whether these words are addressed to John as he is
asking this question?

I wonder whether when we are bowed down under the weight of
this question, these are the words we should hear once again.

They are words of comfort.
But they are also words of challenge as they invite us in other words to
take up the mantle, or to be yoked to Jesus and continue carrying out his work
– they are wonderful words.

Wearied by the questioning,

Hear again the teaching of Jesus.

See again the difference he makes in people’s lives.

And may we always know deep in our hearts

That we may always come to you,

However weary and heavy laden

And you will give us rest

But most of all hear these words addressed to you …

‘Come to me, all you
that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light.’

Shaping our Church for tomorrow

Our sermons on Sunday mornings are exploring the way we can make that a reality.

Mapping the Church of the Future

As we re-shape the life of our church and dream dreams for the future of Highbury we are reading through Acts on Sunday evenings. Our series of sermons with the title 'Mapping the Church of the Future' is a 21st Century view of Acts.